Caulking cartridges have been used for some time to easily handle and accurately dispense substances which are otherwise inconvenient for customer use. Employing a simple and inexpensive caulking gun, caulking cartridges may be loaded and the caulk applied without direct handling of this viscous material. Utilizing caulk and other materials of similar consistency from pails, cans, etc. requires comparatively expensive equipment for easy handling which cannot be justified by most consumers of these materials.
Although caulking cartridges may be necessary and convenient to facilitate consumer use, filling and handling these cartridges presents obvious packaging problems to the manufacturer. Their elongated shape in addition to a nozzle at one end gives them a high center of gravity when vertically aligned, particularly when vertically aligned in a nozzle down orientation. The high center of gravity is especially a problem when the cartridge is filled with the dense viscous material. Further, the dispensing nozzle protrudes from the cartridge at the only available flat surface on which the cartridge could be set during filling. These factors make it difficult to transport, fill and handle caulking cartridges by automated equipment.
U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,250,685 and 4,254,806 disclose an apparatus for filling caulking cartridges where the empty cartridges are loaded into a cup-like recepticle which is secured to a continuous belt while in horizontal alignment, filled and capped while vertically aligned nozzle down, and unloaded when again in horizontal alignment onto a means to convey in horizontal alignment. The cartridges are transported in the vertically aligned position only for so long as they are on the filling and capping apparatus.
Obviously, a method for filling the cartridges which repeatedly manipulates the cartridge itself is going to fail frequently. Crushed cartridges, down time, and a great deal of expended manpower are the result of such failures. Further, in the above described method, down time on the loading device directly leads to down time on the filler and capping apparatus. Even where the loading device fails to fill a single recepticle, then that portion of filler capacity is lost.
It is an object of the present invention to reduce caulking cartridge handling in the filling and packaging process.
It is another object of the present invention to fully utilize available capacity of a caulking cartridge filling and packaging apparatus.
It is still another object of the present invention to develop a transport puck for transporting caulking cartridges in vertical alignment.
It is another object of the present invention to develop a method for filling and packaging caulking cartridges which reduces down time, better utilizes available capacity, reduces damaged cartridges, and reduces expended manpower.